...Communio (1930; The Communion of Saints), in which he tried to combine a sociological and a theological understanding of the church, and in Akt und Sein (1931; Act and Being), in which he traces the influence of transcendental philosophy and ontology—as well as Kantian and post-Kantian theories of knowledge and of being—on Protestant and......

The Calvert family provided for religious freedom in the colony, and this was formalized by the General Assembly in 1649 in an Act Concerning Religion, later famous as the Act of Religious Toleration. It granted freedom of worship, though only within the bounds of Trinitarian Christianity. One of the earliest laws of religious liberty, it was limited to Christians and repealed in 1692.......

one of the basic instruments of the British constitution, the result of the long 17th-century struggle between the Stuart kings and the English people and Parliament. It incorporated the provisions of the Declaration of Rights, acceptance of which had been the condition upon which the throne, held to have been vacated by James II, was offered to the prince and princess of Orange...

legislation of the British House of Commons that separated the southeastern Australian district of Port Phillip from New South Wales and established it as the colony of Victoria. The act was passed in response to the demand of the Port Phillip settlers, who felt inadequately represented in the New South Wales Legislative Council (self-governing since 1842) and...

...the act against the payment by bishops of their first year’s revenue to Rome. He secured the submission of the clergy to the king in matters of legislation, and in 1533 he secured the passage of the Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome, preventing appeals to Rome in matrimonial and testamentary cases. Its preamble embodied his political theory of the sovereign national state. Thereafter he was i...

...took stock of his early life in the memoirs Arrow in the Blue (1952) and The Invisible Writing (1954). His later works were concerned with science, creativity, and mysticism. The Act of Creation (1964), perhaps the best-known book of his scientific and philosophical period, attempts to explain the processes underlying creativity in science and art. Other works of this......

weight-driven wall clock with a large wooden, painted or lacquered dial. More correctly, it is called a tavern clock. Clocks of this type were displayed by innkeepers and got their name from the passage of a five-shilling duty on clocks in Great Britain, introduced in 1797 by the English prime minister William Pitt the Younger. (Many clocks were disposed of by their owners, who ...

...find him. Ivan Jandl, the nonprofessional actor who played the orphan, received a a special Academy Award, and Zinnemann (best director) and Clift (best actor) also were nominated. Act of Violence (1948) was much darker. In it Robert Ryan played a disabled army veteran who seeks revenge on a former officer who betrayed his platoon while being held as a prisoner of war....

...is likewise of long standing. When, for example, during the reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain, the Russian ambassador was arrested for debt, an international incident ensued, and the famous Act Preserving the Privileges of Ambassadors (1708) was passed. The United States enacted a substantially identical statute in 1790. A United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and......

...the most momentous legal changes in the later 19th century included the creation of the Dominion of Canada (1867) and the passage of legislation including the Gradual Civilization Act (1857), the Act Providing for the Organisation of the Department of the Secretary of State of Canada and for the Management of Indian and Ordnance Lands (1868), the Manitoba Act (1870), and the first......

...a coalition of more than 50 organizations that participated in a public dialogue on the merits of a truth commission. This consultative process lasted a year and culminated in the legislation, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995 (the Act), that established the TRC....

act establishing the organization of the U.S. federal court system, which had been sketched only in general terms in the U.S. Constitution. The act established a three-part judiciary—made up of district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court—and outlined the structure and jurisdiction of each branch....

international organization founded in the United States in 1987 to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic. It was the first group officially created to do so. ACT UP has dozens of chapters in the United States and around the world whose purpose is to find a cure for AIDS, while at the same time providing accurate information, help, and awareness about the diseas...

...for dance and mime by the choreographer. Irish writer Samuel Beckett, trying to reduce his dramatic statement to the barest essentials, “composed” two mimes titled Act Without Words I and II (1957 and 1966), but this was exceptional....

...the German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and the Englishman Isaac Newton. Both men published their researches in the 1680s, Leibniz in 1684 in the recently founded journal Acta Eruditorum and Newton in 1687 in his great treatise, the Principia. Although a bitter dispute over priority developed later between followers of the two men, it is now clear......

...of the Lutheran creed, Jeremias repudiated the Lutheran beliefs on grace and sacramental worship. The proceedings of this Lutheran-Orthodox dialogue were published at Wittenberg, Ger., as Acta et Scripta Theologorum Wirtembergensium et Patriarchae Constantinopolitani, D. Hieremiae (1584; “Acts and Writings of the Württemberg Theologians and His Lordship Jeremias,......

The white baneberry (A. pachypoda; sometimes A. alba), which is native to North America, is 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 inches) tall and bears white berries. The cohosh, or herb Christopher (A. spicata), native to Eurasia, is approximately 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 inches) tall and bears purplish black berries that sometimes are used to make dye. The red baneberry, or red cohosh......

The white baneberry (A. pachypoda; sometimes A. alba), which is native to North America, is 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 inches) tall and bears white berries. The cohosh, or herb Christopher (A. spicata), native to Eurasia, is approximately 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 inches) tall and bears purplish black berries that sometimes are used to make dye. The red baneberry, or red cohosh......

...The cohosh, or herb Christopher (A. spicata), native to Eurasia, is approximately 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 inches) tall and bears purplish black berries that sometimes are used to make dye. The red baneberry, or red cohosh (A. rubra), native to North America, closely resembles A. spicata. Its fruits are red or ivory. The roots and berries of baneberry plants contain irritant.....

The white baneberry (A. pachypoda; sometimes A. alba), which is native to North America, is 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 inches) tall and bears white berries. The cohosh, or herb Christopher (A. spicata), native to Eurasia, is approximately 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 inches) tall and bears purplish black berries that sometimes are used to make dye. The red baneberry, or red cohosh......

in Greek mythology, son of the minor god Aristaeus and Autonoë (daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes in Boeotia); he was a Boeotian hero and hunter. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Actaeon accidentally saw Artemis (goddess of wild animals, vegetation, and childbirth) while she was bathing on Mount Cithaeron; for this reason he was changed by he...

...for dance and mime by the choreographer. Irish writer Samuel Beckett, trying to reduce his dramatic statement to the barest essentials, “composed” two mimes titled Act Without Words I and II (1957 and 1966), but this was exceptional....

...collected and recited legends about the Scottish hero Sir William Wallace. From his own account he was an unlearned man, but his own work, which shows his acquaintance with John Barbour’s epic The Bruce, with Geoffrey Chaucer, and with Scots, Latin, and French chronicles, belies this....

English Puritan preacher and author of The Book of Martyrs, a graphic and polemic account of those who suffered for the cause of Protestantism. Widely read, often the most valued book beside the Bible in the households of English Puritans, it helped shape popular opinion about Roman Catholicism for at least a century. The feeling of the English populace against Spain, important in the......

...royal court, possibly as music tutor to the young Edward VI and probably thanks to the influence of Richard Cox. In 1553 he published his only volume of verse and musical settings, The Actes of the Apostles, which were simple hymnlike compositions written for domestic use. He was ordained first as a deacon and then as a priest in 1560, and he ended his probably......

a polypeptide hormone formed in the pituitary gland that regulates the activity of the outer region (cortex) of the adrenal glands. In mammals the action of ACTH is limited to those areas of the adrenal cortex in which the glucocorticoid hormones—cortisol and cortico...

...the discus. The historian Livy wrote of Greek athletes’ appearing in Rome as early as 186 bce; however, the contestants’ nudity shocked Roman moralists. The emperor Augustus instituted the Actian Games in 27 bce to celebrate his victory over Antony and Cleopatra, and several of his successors began similar games, but it was not until the later empire, especially duri...

Species (Actias luna) of saturniid moth of eastern North America. Lunas are pale green and have a wingspread of 4 in. (10 cm). The wings have a thin brown border, and each hind wing has a long tail-like projection. The larvae feed on the leaves of many kinds of trees and shrubs. See also moth....

protein that is an important contributor to the contractile property of muscle and other cells. It exists in two forms: G-actin (monomeric globular actin) and F-actin (polymeric fibrous actin), the form involved in muscle contraction. In muscle, two long strands of beadlike actin molecules are twisted together to form a thin filament, bundles of which alternate and interdigitat...

Actin is a globular protein that polymerizes (joins together many small molecules) to form long filaments. Because each actin subunit faces in the same direction, the actin filament is polar, with different ends, termed “barbed” and “pointed.” An abundant protein in nearly all eukaryotic cells, actin has been extensively studied in muscle cells. In muscle cells, the......

...three conflicting elements in production—the moving three-dimensional actor, the stationary vertical scenery, and the horizontal floor. He categorized stage lighting under three headings: a general or acting light, which gave diffused illumination; formative light, which cast shadows; and imitated lighting effects painted on the scenery. He saw the illusionist theatre as employing only......

...though he was often turned down. Eventually Wojtyła prevailed, and he consecrated Nowa Huta’s new Ark Church in 1977. Meanwhile, he had written his major philosophical work, The Acting Person (1969), which argues that moral actions—not simply thoughts or statements—create authentic personality and define what a person truly stands for....

any member of the invertebrate order Actiniaria (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria), soft-bodied, primarily sedentary marine animals resembling flowers. They are found from the tidal zone of all oceans to depths of more than 10,000 metres (about 33,000 feet). Some live in brackish water. They are largest, most numerous, and most colourful in warmer seas. The colourful Tealia...

...nm), far (200–100 nm), and extreme (below 100 nm). In biology, three conventional divisions have been observed: near (400–315 nm), which is absorbed relatively poorly by organisms; actinic (315–200 nm), which is absorbed most readily by organic matter and thus has the greatest effects on organisms; and vacuum (less than 200 nm), which is absorbed by most substances,......

...and placement of these and many heavier elements in the periodic table of the elements was helped greatly by an important organizing principle enunciated by Seaborg in 1944 and known as the actinide concept. This was one of the most significant changes in the periodic table since Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev’s original conception in 1869. Seaborg recognized that the 14 elements......

any of a series of 15 consecutive chemical elements in the periodic table from actinium to lawrencium (atomic numbers 89–103). As a group, they are significant largely because of their radioactivity. Although several members of the group, including uranium (the most ...

edible fruit of the vine Actinidia chinensis (family Actinidiaceae). The plant is native to China and Taiwan and is now grown commercially in New Zealand and California. The egg-shaped kiwi fruit has a furry brownish green skin and firm, translucent green flesh with edible purple-black seeds at the centre. The fruit has a slightly acid taste resembling that of a gooseberry or perhaps a hone...

flowering plant family in the order Ericales, composed of 3 genera and some 355 species. Actinidiaceae are usually shrubs, small trees, or lianas; they are largely tropical and are especially abundant in Southeast Asia. The genus Saurauia (about 300 species) grows throughout the range of the family, while Actinid...

The Actinistia, or coelacanths, unlike the Rhipidistia, have exhibited exceptional evolutionary stability. They evolved in the Middle Devonian (397–385 million years ago) and rapidly became specialized so that they looked very much like the modern coelacanths. They were thought to have disappeared 70–50 million years ago, but in 1938 a specimen was taken in the Indian Ocean near the......

radioactive chemical element, in Group 3 (IIIb) of the periodic table, atomic number 89. Actinium was discovered (1899) by French chemist André-Louis Debierne in pitchblende residues left after French physicists Pierre and Marie Curie had extracted radium from them, ...

...while studying actinium-227, which decays by negative beta decay (electron emission) to an isotope of thorium (thorium-227) and by alpha emission (about 1 percent) into an isotope of francium (francium-223) that was formerly called actinium K (AcK) and is a member of the actinium decay series. Though it is the longest-lived isotope of francium, francium-223 has a half-life of only 22......

Actinium-225 has a 10-day half-life, decaying by the emission of alpha particles. Its short-lived daughter isotopes emit only alpha and beta particles with no high-energy gamma rays. This isotope can thus deliver high-energy radiation to a tumour without greatly affecting the surrounding tissue. Complexes of actinium-225 have been studied for their use in nuclear medicine....

The most common isotope of actinium is actinium-227; the others, natural and artificial, are too short-lived to accumulate in macroscopic quantity. Actinium-227, which is one of the decay products of uranium-235, has a 21.8-year half-life and in turn decays almost entirely to thorium-227, but about 1 percent decays to francium-223. This whole disintegration chain with its branches is called the......

...and placement of these and many heavier elements in the periodic table of the elements was helped greatly by an important organizing principle enunciated by Seaborg in 1944 and known as the actinide concept. This was one of the most significant changes in the periodic table since Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev’s original conception in 1869. Seaborg recognized that the 14 elements......

any of a series of 15 consecutive chemical elements in the periodic table from actinium to lawrencium (atomic numbers 89–103). As a group, they are significant largely because of their radioactivity. Although several members of the group, including uranium (the most ...

an amphibole mineral in the tremolite-actinolite series of calcium, magnesium, and iron silicates. The minerals in this series are abundant in regionally metamorphosed rocks, such as schists. Tremolite may weather to talc, and both tremolite and actinolite may alter to chlorite or carbonates. For chemical formula and detailed physical properties, see amphibole (table)....

...(1854). Gosse’s interest in marine biology led to the publication of his most important works, Manual of Marine Zoology, 2 vol. (1855–56), a comprehensive work on the subject, and Actinologia Britannica (1858–60), concerning sea anemones in British waters. As a member of the Plymouth Brethren, a very conservative Christian sect, Gosse rejected all evolutionary......

in chemistry, a substance or a mixture of substances that reacts through the action of light and that, because of the easily determined quantitative relationship between the extent of the reaction and the energy of the absorbed light, is used as a standard for measurement of light energies involved in photochemical work....

A flower may be radially symmetrical (see photograph), as in roses and petunias, in which case it is termed regular or actinomorphic. A bilaterally symmetrical flower, as in orchids (see photograph) and snapdragons, is irregular or zygomorphic....

...variety of organic dusts. These pneumonias may occur following exposure to moldy hay or sugarcane, room humidifiers, and air-conditioning ducts, all of which contain the fungus Actinomyces. Other fungi found in barley, maple logs, and wood pulp may cause similar illnesses. In addition, people exposed to rats, gerbils, pigeons, parakeets, and doves may develop......

...when mucous membrane integrity becomes compromised, facilitating direct invasion of devitalized tissues), some species become pathogenic (disease-causing). The most common pathogenic species are Actinomyces bovis in cattle and A. israeli and A. gerencseriae in humans....

...compromised, facilitating direct invasion of devitalized tissues), some species become pathogenic (disease-causing). The most common pathogenic species are Actinomyces bovis in cattle and A. israeli and A. gerencseriae in humans....

any member of a heterogeneous group of gram-positive, generally anaerobic bacteria noted for a filamentous and branching growth pattern that results, in most forms, in an extensive colony, or mycelium. The mycelium in some species may break apart to form rod- or coccoid-shaped forms. Many genera also form spores; the sporangia, or spore cases, may be found on aerial hyphae, on t...

any member of a heterogeneous group of gram-positive, generally anaerobic bacteria noted for a filamentous and branching growth pattern that results, in most forms, in an extensive colony, or mycelium. The mycelium in some species may break apart to form rod- or coccoid-shaped forms. Many genera also form spores; the sporangia, or spore cases, may be found on aerial hyphae, on t...

...Dulbecco at the California Institute of Technology. Temin’s hypothesis was formally proposed in 1964. The provirus hypothesis came about when experiments demonstrated that an antibiotic called actinomycin D, which is capable of inhibiting DNA and RNA synthesis, inhibited the reproduction of RSV. However, the concept of an RNA molecule’s turning itself into DNA drew very few supporters....

chronic bacterial infection of humans and cattle that is caused by anaerobic or microaerophilic (oxygen-requiring) species of the genus Actinomyces. The disease is characterized by the development of multiple abscesses (painful, hard, pus-filled swellings) and draining sinus tracts (channels that extend from the site of infection to a...

...actin, the molecular weight of which is about 50,000; it forms 12 to 15 percent of the muscle proteins. Actin can exist in two forms—one, G-actin, is globular; the other, F-actin, is fibrous. Actomyosin is a complex molecule formed by one molecule of myosin and one or two molecules of actin. In muscle, actin and myosin filaments are oriented parallel to each other and to the long axis of......

any parasitic microorganism of the class Actinomyxidia (Actinosporea), phylum Myxosporidia (Myxospora). It inhabits the alimentary canal of certain aquatic worms. The characteristic spores develop in the host’s gut after the union of large and small gametes. The spores contain three polar filaments (possibly anchoring devices) enclosed in capsules and one to many infective sporozoites. The repres...

any parasitic microorganism of the class Actinomyxidia (Actinosporea), phylum Myxosporidia (Myxospora). It inhabits the alimentary canal of certain aquatic worms. The characteristic spores develop in the host’s gut after the union of large and small gametes. The spores contain three polar filaments (possibly anchoring devices) enclosed in capsules and one to many infective sporozoites. The repres...

...observed in 1899 by the British scientists Robert B. Owens and Ernest Rutherford, who noticed that some of the radioactivity of thorium compounds could be blown away by breezes in the laboratory. Radon-219 (actinon; 3.92-second half-life), which is associated with actinium, was found independently in 1904 by German chemist Friedrich O. Giesel and French physicist André-Louis Debierne.......

Actinophrys sol is a common species often referred to as the sun animalcule. Acanthocystis turfacea is a similar species commonly called the green sun animalcule because its body is coloured by harmless symbiotic green algae (zoochlorellae). Actinosphaerium species are multinucleate, often reaching a diameter of 1 mm (0.04 inch)....

any parasitic microorganism of the class Actinomyxidia (Actinosporea), phylum Myxosporidia (Myxospora). It inhabits the alimentary canal of certain aquatic worms. The characteristic spores develop in the host’s gut after the union of large and small gametes. The spores contain three polar filaments (possibly anchoring devices) enclosed in capsules and one to many infective sporozoites. The repres...

any parasitic microorganism of the class Actinomyxidia (Actinosporea), phylum Myxosporidia (Myxospora). It inhabits the alimentary canal of certain aquatic worms. The characteristic spores develop in the host’s gut after the union of large and small gametes. The spores contain three polar filaments (possibly anchoring devices) enclosed in capsules and one to many infective sporozoites. The repres...

In the three surviving examples of Cristofori’s pianos, which date from the 1720s, the mechanism, or “action,” differs somewhat from that described and pictured by Maffei; however, rather than merely representing an earlier phase of Cristofori’s work, Maffei’s diagram may be in error. In the surviving instruments a pivoted piece of wood is set into the key. The pivoted piece (which......

Human rights organizations complained about the increasing number of lawsuits being brought against the political opposition. One notable case involved a speech made by Hun Sen in April in which he allegedly attacked parliamentarian Mu Sochua, using phrases with sexual innuendo. Mu Sochua, a former minister of women’s affairs, sued Hun Sen for defamation for a nominal amount, 500 riels ($0.12),......

in theoretical physics, an abstract quantity that describes the overall motion of a physical system. Motion, in physics, may be described from at least two points of view: the close-up view and the panoramic view. The close-up view involves an instant-by-instant charting of the behaviour of an object. The panoramic view, on the other hand, reveals not only a complete picture of...

...purpose of doing something. Then one can distinguish between sufficient doing (causing), expressed by C(x,m,r), where for x m suffices to make sure that r; instrumental action E(x,m,r,), where x sees to it that r by means of m; and purposive action, A(x,r,p), where x sees to it that r for the purpose that p....

Practical shoulder-fired small arms started with the perfection of the flintlock ignition system in the mid-17th century (see military technology). Earlier gunpowder small arms, based on the matchlock or wheel lock mechanisms, were generally too heavy, too unreliable, or too expensive to allow for general issue to infantry forces. Indeed, the first matchlock......

...bodies interacting with one another by means of the force of gravity. In the previous discussion of circular orbits, the Sun was assumed to be at rest at the centre of the orbit, but, according to Newton’s third law, it must actually be accelerated by a force due to Earth that is equal and opposite to the force that the Sun exerts on Earth. In other words, considering only the Sun and Earth......

...to be a bridge between serious and quick chess. The most popular new format, which appeared in the mid-1980s, limited an entire game to 25 minutes for each player. This control, variously called action chess, active chess, quickplay, and game/25, became popular because it provided a livelier tempo in which an entire tournament could be completed in an evening....

Instrumental, or operant, conditioning involves creating a relationship between a response and a stimulus. If the experiment described above is changed so that after the tone is heard, the infant is required to turn his head to the right in order to receive the sweetened water, the infant will learn to turn his head when the tone sounds. The infant learns a relation between the response of......

French clandestine extremist group that emerged in 1979 and is believed to have been an amalgam of earlier groups. Sometimes compared with older radical and militant groups such as the Italian Red Brigades and the German Red Army Faction, Direct Action was said to subscribe to an ideology described variously as communist, anarchist, or Maoist, with strong symp...

He studied at the École Normale Supérieure under Léon Ollé-Laprune and first formulated his philosophy in L’Action: essai d’une critique de la vie et d’une science de la pratique (1893; Action: Essay on a Critique of Life and a Science of Practice). Blondel was influenced by the theory that belief is a matter of will as well as logical......

The CSSD finally reached agreement in early January with two parties: the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) and the Christian Democratic Union–Czechoslovak People’s Party (KDU-CSL). CSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka was chosen as prime minister, while ANO leader Andrej Babis became finance minister, and KDU-CSL chairman Pavel Belobradek was named minister without portfolio for science,......

(French: “French Action”), influential right-wing antirepublican group in France during the first 40 years of the 20th century. Action Française was also the name of a daily newspaper (published from March 21, 1908, to Aug. 24, 1944) that expressed the group’s ideas....

Daudet’s major journalistic achievement began in 1908, when he and Charles Maurras refashioned L’Action française into a daily paper of avowedly reactionary, nationalist, and royalist opinion. Daudet had published an antirepublican satire, Le Pays des partementeurs, in 1901, and his contributions to L’Action française showed the same satirical and Rabelaisian......

...of the Baptist Teachers’ Union and the Nigerian Youth Movement. He left teaching to study public administration and law in England and returned to Nigeria in 1950. He became a legal adviser to the Action Group, the dominant Western Region party, and by 1954 was deputy leader under Obafemi Awolowo. He was simultaneously active in the federal government; he became minister of labour in 1952 and.....

...a coalition government of the NPS and the VHP. In 1961 the left-wing Nationalist Republican Party (Partij Nationalistische Republiek; PNR) was established. Among the South Asian population the Action Group (Aktie Groep) became active. A split occurred in the NPS-VHP coalition after the 1967 elections, which led to a coalition of the Action Group and the NPS, but in 1969 that government......

Larceny, Inc., Wings for the Eagle, and Silver Queen (all 1942) followed. Action in the North Atlantic (1943) was an exercise in patriotism, with Bogart and Raymond Massey defending their ship from a German submarine attack. It was probably Bacon’s best action picture at Warner Brothers, though......

...principle of least action (c. 1744), which sought to explain all processes as driven by a demand that some property be economized or minimized. In particular, minimizing an integral, called an action integral, led several mathematicians (most notably the Italian-French Joseph-Louis Lagrange in the 18th century and the Irish William Rowan Hamilton in the 19th century) to a teleological......

direct, instinctual, and highly dynamic kind of art that involves the spontaneous application of vigorous, sweeping brushstrokes and the chance effects of dripping and spilling paint onto the canvas. The term was coined by the American art critic Harold Rosenberg to characterize the work of a group of American Abstract Expressionists who utilized the method from about 1950. Acti...

...cautiously revived in 1942 and 1943. The Communists helped to organize strikes, the leading Roman Catholics formed the Christian Democratic Party (now the Italian Popular Party) in 1943, and the new Party of Action was founded in January 1943, mainly by republicans and Radicals. Leading Communists began to reenter Italy, and their party began to put down deep roots across the country. By this.....

the brief (about one-thousandth of a second) reversal of electric polarization of the membrane of a nerve cell (neuron) or muscle cell. In the neuron an action potential produces the nerve impulse, and in the muscle cell it produces the contraction required for all movement. Sometimes called a propagated potential because ...